1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a maintenance device, and more particularly, to a print head maintenance device used in a printing device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays machines often used in document processing include photostats, faxes, and printers. To meet the requirement of high quality printing, the common ink jet printer mostly requires a print head maintenance device to clean and maintain a print head so as to avoid ink contamination.
A general print head maintenance device comprises a wiper, a print head cap, and a blotting device. The wiper is used to wipe remaining ink from the print head. The print head cap is used to cap the print head to avoid remaining ink drying on the print head blocking the nozzles when the print head returns to its original position. The blotting device is used to absorb ink jetted by the print head when cleaning the nozzles.
As mentioned, the print head and the wiper must have relative motions, so the objective of wiping ink can be achieved. In a prior art print head maintenance device, according to different arrangements of nozzle array on the print head, the relative motions of the print head and the wiper can be divided into two arrangements. If a plurality of chromatic nozzle arrays on the print head uses an arrangement perpendicular to the horizontal, the direction of the relative motions of the print head and the wiper can be in parallel. Nevertheless, if the plurality of chromatic nozzle arrays on the print head uses an arrangement parallel to the horizontal, a direction of the relative motions of the print head and the wiper must be perpendicular to each other so as to prevent chromatic ink contamination during wiping.
For the above mentioned first condition, the direction of the relative motions of the print head and the wiper can optically fix one party and move the other to produce a parallel movement. For example, the simplest solution is to fix the print head at a predetermined position in the process to achieve the objective of wiping ink. For the second condition, a direction of the relative motions of the print head and the wiper is produced by moving the wiper in a direction perpendicular to the movement of the print head after the print head reaches a predetermined position on the process to achieve the objective of wiping ink and prevent chromatic ink contamination. This movement of the wiper usually employs an extra motor.
Currently, the arrangement of the plurality chromatic nozzle arrays on the print head often uses a side-by-side arrangement. Therefore, the direction of the relative motions of the print head and the wiper must be exactly perpendicular to wipe remaining ink from the print head. But in the prior art, to achieve the relative motions, a motor is added in the maintenance device to drive the wiper, thus the cost of the maintenance device is increased.
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide a print head maintenance device to solve the above mentioned problems.
According to the claimed invention, the print head maintenance device is used to clean a print head of a printing device. The print head is movable on a horizontal track of the printing device. The print head has at least one linearly arranged nozzle array. The maintenance device comprises a line-shaped first track in parallel with the horizontal track, a line-shaped second track having a first section which forms a slant angle with the first track and a second section which is in parallel with the first track, an ink brush slidably installed on the second track for cleaning remaining ink from the nozzle array of the print head, and a connecting device moveable along the first track in the maintenance device. When the print head moves across the maintenance device, the print head will connect with the maintenance device through the connecting device. The connecting device can move along the first track to slide the ink brush along the second track to clean remaining ink from the nozzle array of the print head.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the wiping direction of the ink brush of the maintenance device is perpendicular to the movement direction of the print head. Besides, there is no need to install another motor to drive the ink brush so reducing the cost of the maintenance device.
These and other objectives and advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.